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Mindfulness and Loving-Kindness Meditation Course

Mindfulness and Loving-Kindness Meditation Course

Meditation is a means of transforming the mind. It helps us change the way we relate to ourselves and the world around us.

On this five week course we teach two meditation techniques, which consist of simple but effective practices drawn from the Buddhist tradition and originally taught by the Buddha himself.

They complement each other and can be learned by anyone, and you don’t have to be a Buddhist to benefit from them!

The Mindfulness of Breathing

The first practice is the The Mindfulness of Breathing, which helps us cultivate mindfulness, bringing us back to the present moment and all the richness of experience that it contains. It is a good antidote to restlessness and anxiety, and a good way to relax.

More than that, it also helps us to unlock and integrate our deeper emotional energies. By practising the Mindfulness of Breathing regularly, we can experience ourselves becoming more free at deeper and deeper levels of ourselves.

The Development of Loving-Kindness

The second practice, The Development of Loving-Kindness, helps us to cultivate loving-kindness both for ourselves and for others, until we include all beings, without discrimination, in our loving-kindness. The practice is a particularly good antidote for irritability, ill-will and hatred. It’s also good for relieving anxiety and stress.

Ultimately, the Development of Loving-Kindness is a wisdom practice. Wisdom, from a Buddhist perspective, means seeing that other people are no different from ourselves, in that they too want happiness and fulfilment, just as we ourselves do. Developing loving-kindness can help us to see this for ourselves.

For more on meditation, mindfulness and loving-kindness, see our meditation page.

Course Aim and Structure

The aim of the course is to help you set up and maintain a meditation practice of your own at home.

Over the five weeks, you’ll learn:

Meditation & Mindfulness

What is Meditation?

Introduction to Mindfulness

Meditation Posture

The Mindfulness of Breathing

Exploring Aspects of Mindfulness

The Development of Loving-Kindness

Working with the Mind: Distraction and Absorption

Taking Meditation into the World

Mindfulness and Loving-Kindness off the Cushion

Continuing your Practice after the Course

We’ll be asking you to set up your own practice at home from week one, and each week you’ll be able to come back to the course and discuss how things are going, checking in about your practice with our experienced teachers and others on the course with you.

And you’ll have a host of resources available to support your practice, including detailed notes each week and audio downloads (or audio CDs if preferred) to guide you in your meditations.

Learning to Meditate in the DBC

Meditation is something that’s best learned from others and with others. When you come to the DBC, you are part of an active community of like-minded people, all exploring what meditation can offer, in an atmosphere of friendliness and warmth.

Our courses are practical and relevant, distilling the wisdom of the Buddhist meditation tradition into a form that’s easy to learn and at the same time profound in its application.

Many people have found that learning meditation with us has changed their lives (see testimonials from previous participants), with the practices of mindfulness and loving-kindness having a deeply transformative effect on their minds and emotions.

All our meditation teachers are ordained members of the Triratna Buddhist Order, men and women who are themselves living a life of meditation and Buddhist practice, and have been for many years.

The DBC is a not-for-profit charity – our desire is to make the wealth of the Buddhist tradition available in a useful form that anyone can take up – regardless of whether they’re a Buddhist or not.

The Dublin Buddhist Centre is a not-for-profit religious charity. As such, we set our charges to cover our costs of running the centre.

So the money you pay for courses helps to make possible a vibrant spiritual community, dedicated to growth and transformation and, in particular, pursuit of the Buddhist Path to freedom.

It allows us to offer a beautiful space in the heart of Dublin City where people can come and practice meditation, yoga and Buddhism.

We keep the costs as low as possible and apply concessionary rates to as many of our courses and events as possible.

However, we realise that at times people may still find the working or concessionary rates difficult to meet. If attending any of our classes would put you in financial difficulties then please let us know and we will work something out.

We welcome your thoughts on this or any other matter – please feel free to use the Contact Form to let us know.